14 DAY TRIAL // Not too long ago, Sharp proudly announced that it would be the first company to deliver Blu-ray disks based on the BDXL specification, along with the optical drive units capable of reading and writing such disks. This new type of Blu-ray will have 100 GB of storage, and will eventually go all the way up to 128 GB. The first shipments are slated to commence by the end of the month, and this will give Sharp a good head start. Still, its monopoly won't last overly long, considering that TDK has also expressed its intention to tackle this segment.
TDK is readying what it calls "BRV100HCPWB1A" BD-R discs. These disks can store up to 100 GB, just like Sharp's offerings, and will have three data layers. They also come with a hard coating, will support recording at 2X and 4X speeds and, finally, will feature a white surface for inkjet printing.
Furthermore, as their BD-R label implies, they will not be rewritable, though it is only a matter of time until BD-RE products show up. All the disks will be compatible with the BD-HDW700 and BD-HDW70 recorders that Sharp will unleash on July 30.
The BDXL format was announced by the Blu-ray Disk Association back in June and defined the means by which multiple recordable layers can be combined in order to allow for storing up to 128GB. Such high-capacity disks have not yet been created, but their making is only a matter of adding the fourth layer that 100 GB ones do without.
The price of the disks has not exactly been made official, but they are expected to sell, in Japan, for about 5,000 yen, or over $50. This price may seem somewhat steep, since it wouldn't take much more to buy a portable hard drive, but the tag should, eventually, decrease once an actual competition starts in this field.